Considerably earlier than expected, the public version of the Deus Ex: Invisible
War demo is now available for download. Here's word: "Only one event has
been more anticipated than the December 3rd release of Deus Ex: Invisible War,
and that is the release of the pre-release playable demo for Deus Ex: Invisible
War. The demo gives an incredible glimpse into the unique player choice
gameplay. Alex D needs transport in a jet held by Sophia Sak, mercenary. There
are many ways to resolve the challenges in getting your ride, it's up to you how
to choose to make it happen. You've got a few biomods and a few weapons at your
disposal, but are they necessary. Will you use wits or brawn? And do you have
enough of either to make it happen?" The 224 MB demo can be found on
the Eidos
Interactive Website, and mirrored on 3D
Downloads, 3D Gamers, Boomtown
(registration required), Computer
Games Online, DeusEx2Files,
FileFront,
Filerush,
FileShack (registration required), Gamer's
Hell, Games
Fusion, GameSpot
DLX (registration required), GameTab,
IGN, Loadedinc
(registration required), NWSGaming, Pixelrage.ro,
and Worthplaying.

Deus : IW has to be the worst game of the year (possibly the last 2). The characters move like Thunderbird puppets in the pathetic cut scenes and this time round we get to play the part of a snivelling freckly little college twat who hasnít reached puberty! Itís pathetic! I had no idea console players were so easily pleased! Itís such an astonishing piece of s**t! DX1 graphics were better too on the right hardware. I wish these bloody reviews would stop too; they are obviously being paid off! Itís an abysmal piece of crap and thatís all there is to it; itís like a shareware engine from 5 years ago with nothing but crap added to it. Daikatana was better than this!

"A working nanomotor is no where close to a neural/biological nano-machine which augments the user with superhuman capabilities. Have you read about our current understanding of the brain, and our nervous system? While we understand it, manipulating it to our benifit has thus far proven impossible. Going from a motor (quite simple) to a machine capable of working with our biology to create bones as hard as steel, or make us jump 20 feet, (never mind the internal damage constant impact from 20 feet will have) is a gigantic leap - one you see easily. You even see cock-fights with transgenic organisms as plausible. So does Jedi Luke. But when it comes to unified ammo - you argue it is implausible? I don't like the way it affects the game either, but insulting someone because they see it as plausible, and you do not is retarded. If you really don't like it that much, don't play the game."

No, it's a valid complaint. The thing is, only 15(or 20?) years have passed since the original game. How would the entire arms market be converted to a completely different setup in 15 years?! We've been using modern firearms for centuries, and the ammunition we already have is incredibly simple and reliable. In Deus Ex, nanotechnology is NOT universally available, so how do Mako guns sell to everyone? If nanotech capable of converting, rebuilding, and moving matter were so widely available, the world wide depression from Invisible War would not exist. It's just a (poor IMO) design decision, and not based on the reality inside the game.

And for the record, transgenic fights are actually more realistic than biomods for that time period. Birds can theoretically be changed back to previous dinosaur-like states by reactivating inactive genes.

I don't particularly think it's the biggest problem the demo has, and I'm hardly losing my grip because of it, but I don't think it's fun, and I don't think it's a realistic vision of the future in any way. I think if it weren't there, people wouldn't be talking about dumbing down as much.

not having shadows in the world or toss unplayable frame rates due to piss poor performance *breaks* immersion, unified ammo isn't my fave feature but i'll live with it as i'm sure its all explained either in the manual or *somewhere*, it doesn't break immersion imo. having to shoot people 3 or four times at close range before they die or 3 or four times in the head from close range breaks immersion, throwing dead bodies *way* up into the air and then not being able to pick up the wooden pallet in the bar breaks immersion.

If we assume that technology has reached the point where napalm can be made from the same stuff as electricity, gunpowder and bullets then we're messing with some pretty fundamental atomic properties within an ammo container. Once you reach that point, you wouldn't make ammo that contains neurotoxins that take people down in 3 shots, but rather 1 that only has to graze the skin. You'd also find it pretty hard to maintain the 3rd world "everything has broken down" deus ex world.

Sorry. unified ammo *breaks* the immersion, it doesn't promote it except to people who have no concept of what it would require.

appart from the whole it doesn't make sense unless the user is nanite augmented argument that is the only way we can logically work out how the 'no-reload/all ammo exists in all weapons as soon as u switch' arguement

I feel if anyone/company had gone thru the trouble of developing Nanite based ammo, it would be unintellegent/unprofitable NOT to have a single weapon which fired different projectiles, to use the Nanite ammo. Not only that it would be easier to Create/Make a MultiProjWeapon that it would to have a single ammo sorce from nanites at least at my current understanding of reality

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.That is easy.All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.It works the same way in any country.

Personally, I have no real trouble imagining that in the future world of Deus Ex, they have invented this type of ammo. All weapons except the knife and the baton use mutating nanobot ammo, I imagine to myself. No sweat.

HOWEVER (and I know it's a silly debate, but I'm finding it somewhat more entertaining than the demo, ATM)

I have a very hard time immagining that the manufacturers of said ammo - and the weapons which use it - wouldn't still be delivering it to the consumer in some sort of easily-installed cartridge form. Something that's also easy to sell and distribute. To me, it just makes sense in a universe where soy-food is still sold in tidy foil packets.

I would also imagine that, much as is the case today, the design considerations for the weapons would naturally influence the form-factor of the ammo they use.

Otherwise, I have to imagine that weapons in the future use only ONE standard interface for ammo supply, and that the chosen standard is some sort of strange nano-conduit flowing through the users fingers (or from a belt, or via 802.11g, or whatever).

The only way I can see that being plausible at all is if ALL weapons were manufactured by only one interest, and I don't know of any evidence to support that idea in the DX universe.. REMEMBER: these guys have gone on at great length about how "true-to-life" this universe is meant to be, and this gameplay mechanic made PERFECT sense in the first installment. I am willing to accept that in the span of time between the two games, significant advancements have been made in weapons ammo, but nothing about the way these advancements are being presented to me feels the least bit plausible.

To make matters worse, there is an item in the demo labeled "Ammo Clip", however it's one-size fits-all -- as we well know. Sorry, but until somebody tells me where the "recepticle" is that my character slots that into on his body, I'd prefer to think he's shoving it into the gun, thx.

This comment was edited on Nov 25, 22:00.

-----I'm not even angry. I'm being so sincere right now, even though you broke my heart and killed me.

I kinda see a patern here. It's the same thing with Matrix Revolutions. It has no story at all but they didnt need one because all the fans filled in the giant plot holes for them. They type 500 hundred page esays (sic) on forums that explaining eveything apperently.

It's the same thing here. Ion Storm makes a game and all they say is that it's in the future and that there are nanobots. (damn I get tired of that, EVERYTHING that is hard to believe and magical in the future has the word NANO-something. Especially in movies.) The rest is (as you have seen if you had the patience to read the whole forum) explained by the fans.